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How Does Fracking Affect The Environment

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Our society is in constant need of energy. 40 percent of the United States energy consumption is from oil. Coal provides 23 percent and natural gas provides 22 percent of our energy. These sources and how much we get from them will soon have to change because as most of us know, our fossil fuels are limited. Once these fossil fuels are used, they cannot be replaced. There are ways that we can reduce the amount of fossil fuels that we use. The ways that we extract these fossil fuels are leaving a negative impact on our environment.
What is fracking? It is the process of drilling and injecting fluid into the ground at a high pressure in order to fracture shale rocks to release the natural gases inside. Over 600 chemicals are used in fracking fluids. 72 trillion gallons of water and 360 billion gallons of chemicals are needed to run current gas wells. Fracking can cause contamination in the environment. Methane gas and toxic chemicals contaminate nearby groundwater. …show more content…

I believe that the main threat is global climate change. We are the cause of this, so technically, we are harming ourselves. We continue to burn carbon daily and this is just building up in the atmosphere. This is causing the Earth’s temperature to slowly rise. These rising temperatures can cause severe droughts. Exposure to extreme heat can also lead to heat strokes and dehydration. Warmer temperatures can lead to really poor air quality, which can lead to asthma attacks. Warmer temperatures are also melting permafrost. Permafrost holds massive amounts of carbon. IF it continues to melt then the carbon will be released and stored in the atmosphere. This will cause the Earth’s temperature to rise even quicker. Researchers believe the 60 percent of the Northern Hemispheres permafrost will melt. This can release about 190 billion tons of carbon into the Earth’s atmosphere. If this happens, then even more people's health will be a

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736 Words | 3 Pages

Fracking involves drilling a hole into the ground and injecting a combination of fluids and chemicals into the shale. The fracking fluid contains upwards of 600 different chemicals (David). The pressure of the fluid is what causes the shale to fracture, then releases natural gas. That fracking fluid is what is really dangerous, as this is what poses the biggest threat, since many of those chemicals are extremely dangerous and some are completely unknown by the public. After the fracking process is complete, the fracking water, known as flowback, which includes water, chemicals and additives, is either collected and transferred to holding-tanks or it is injected back into the ground for storage

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918 Words | 4 Pages

There are about 600 different chemicals that are used in fracking fluid, where most of them are hazardous to both humans and wildlife. 150 000 litres of chemicals are used during fracking. Spills of the fracking fluid during the process can result in huge concentrations of the chemicals seeping into the ground. Even though, after the entire process is complete, most of the fluid that was used comes up to the surface, only 30%-50% of it is recovered. Sometimes instead of being taken to a water treatment facility, the fluid is disposed of by injecting it back into the ground.

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723 Words | 3 Pages

Increasing temperatures, increasing sea levels, melting glaciers, and extreme weather events like storms, droughts, and floods are all direct results of global warming. Experts foresee severe effects for the planet's future, including severe food shortages, climate refugees, and the extinction of numerous species, if global warming continues at its current rate. “This warming trend is alarming. Our warming climate is already making a mark: Forest fires are intensifying; hurricanes are getting stronger; droughts are wreaking havoc and sea levels are rising. NASA is deepening our commitment to do our part in addressing climate change.

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253 Words | 2 Pages

In addition, there are more downsides to fracking than just water pollution, and that is the pollution of our environment. The condition of our environment is horrendous when fracking is conducted. To add on to that statement, fracking has caused natural gas leakage into the air, marred landscapes, and many more hazards to our environment. Fracking has already caused pollution to the air, and fracking companies have to remove trees, then that takes away more air from our environment. Trees are vital to Earth’s supply of oxygen, and these companies are just taking the air straight out of the lungs of the people.

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1443 Words | 6 Pages

A few of the chemicals include: formaldehyde, acetic acids, citric acids, and boric acids (EarthWorks). This mix of toxic chemicals is considered harmful because the runoff from the fracking process can seep into drinking water and contaminate it. Currently, there aren’t any laws that are regulating the amount of toxic chemicals that can be used in this process. Since 1990, the use of chemicals used in the fracking process has greatly increased, as well as the amount of pressure used to pump the water. In addition, the fracking process increases the amount of methane gas that is present in the atmosphere.

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139 Words | 1 Pages

In Dimock Pennsylvania, Natural gas fracking caused a gas leak which caused many long term and short term impacts on the earth and town itself. Cleanup has been ongoing for over eight years, and it seems that the area may never return to its original condition. Even though it provides many jobs to unemployed people, natural gas fracking damages the environment, poses health problems, and damages manmade and natural infrastructures. According to Rafuse in “Don’t let extremists undermine fracking boom.” , “gas jobs have grown by 18 percent in the last five years, compared to just 4 percent for the rest of the economy.” Natural Gas fracking damages the environment in many ways, including contaminating water.

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390 Words | 2 Pages

Fracking has many environmental impacts on the world we live in. We should strive to keep a sustainable living community for future generations. One issue about fracking that interests me is the environmental damage of the land and water. Fracking requires a large amount of land. Once you target the area you want to use for fracking, you have to cut down all of the existing trees and create roads for the trucks.

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The Anglers of the Au Sable, a Michigan environmental conservation group, and others, worry that this will deplete freshwater sources and potentially dry up rivers and streams that are key to Michigan's environmental ecological health. Even though danger is known and theoretically could be managed,no one knows how the enclosed water will behave in the future since there are no long term study on this subject. The chemicals used in fracking varies from the hazardous to the extremely toxic such as formic acid.

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The waste water from fracking is injected back into the ground, or sent to water treatment facilities before being deposited into rivers, causing many to wonder if our groundwater is being contaminated in the process. US News interviewed Radisav Vidic, author of a study on the impacts of shale on water quality. He noted that while scientists currently do not have enough information to point to fracking as a definite cause of water pollution, there is no way to determine if our current water quality monitoring systems are accurate enough to pick up pollution levels. Meaning, our health could be at stake and we wouldn’t know

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Fracking: A Crime against Humanity As a law abiding citizen, I cannot conceive or be an advocate of fracking, without questioning its impact on Earth’s layers; and its role in the increment of frequency of earthquakes, contamination of water, and the related human health hazards. While fracking is helping the U.S. to extract shale gas, which is basically trapped between fine sedimentary rocks, the liabilities are overwhelming. In the field of fossil fuel, these rocks are well-known as stale and its exploitation is supporting American’s population, in obtaining the most needed fossil fuel. Deplorably, the risks seem unbeatable.

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263 Words | 2 Pages

Fracking is responsible for not only water quality but also for air quality since fracking frees some unhealthy chemicals to the air. Therefore, the ones who get the most negative effects are people who live gas drilling because the gas is taken by blowing off the water, sand, and chemical underground to destroy shale deposits. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) pointed out that the air polluted by fracking could causes several diseases, especially cancer.

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640 Words | 3 Pages

“From the day of the bird, I began to watch carefully for the deep wounds that others hid but always carried with them. The more I saw, the faster came compassion, the tool of insight until my path was made perfectly clear. From the start there was no other choice; my purpose was to touch the wounds of others and then to heal them.” (Page 12). Echo knew from a very young age what her true calling in life was to become a nurse.

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1001 Words | 5 Pages

Citizens of the United States should not need to pick between clean energy and clean drinking water. Hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” is “the process of injecting liquid at high pressure into subterranean rocks, boreholes, etc., so as to force open existing fissures and extract oil or gas”(Oxford Dictionary). The fracking process is not a safer alternative to clean energy because it causes health risks and harm to the environment (Jackson et al. 2014). The academic journal titled, “The Environmental Costs and benefits of Fracking” claims the growth of the fracking industry is causing “high-density drilling to occur in areas with little or no previous oil and gas production, often literally in people 's backyards” (Jackson et al. 2014).

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231 Words | 1 Pages

In an environmental perspective, “[a] 2014 New York state health department report…finding serious concerns in areas including respiratory health, drinking water, seismic activity, soil contamination, and impact of new roads and infrastructure on local communities” (James McBride, Hydraulic Fracturing (Fracking), cfr.org). Drinking water is at risk of being affected because, as previously mentioned, the opened fractures within the shale bedrock potentially allow wastewater and other chemicals to travel into groundwater. The eruption of increasing seismic activities after a fracking event, as stated by the aforementioned article by McBride, “…is a concern because both the fracking process and the practice of injecting wastewater into deep wells

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943 Words | 4 Pages

Our natural resources are at risk every time fracking occurs. Fracking needs to be banned since it is hurting our health and that it drains our natural and limited resources required for us to sustain life.    Water is an essential to living and it is a need. Without it we would be dead from the dehydration. Fracking in this case can contaminate it to where we cannot drink it and if we do it can lead to death or a trip to the hospital:

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